After the I Summit of the Americas in 1994, the Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labor (IACML), with the leadership of the OAS, has been articulating and reinforcing its actions with the Summit mandates. In fact, there is a two-way relationship between these forums. On the one hand, the Summit is a hemispheric guiding framework that confers specific mandates to the Ministries of Labor and to the IACML. On the other hand, the IACML influences the definition of labor priorities that are incorporated into the Summit process.

This two-way relationship reached its momentum in 2005, with the celebration of the IV Summit of the Americas, with the theme “Creating Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance”. Today, and after the celebration of the V Summit of the Americas in 2009, this relationship continues to strengthen and unfold a broad coincidence on priorities and mandates.